


A Thing With Feathers

by KriegsaffeNo9



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Besties HC, But it's between a witch and her familiar, Do you know what I'm saying to you?, Friendship is rare!, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, friendship is rare.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 05:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16402541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KriegsaffeNo9/pseuds/KriegsaffeNo9
Summary: Ursula's got a hurt bird and that's not going to stand.Requested by Matthew Swift, and drawing a little bit from a personal experience with my dog Jack (RIP).





	A Thing With Feathers

Ursula threw open the door at last, ceasing the endless knocks. "Yes?" she said, the question coming out a little more shrill than intended when she saw Alcor in Nelson's arms.

"Hey, new girl," Nelson said, holding out Alcor. "I was out breakin' in the broom when I saw this little guy hoppin' on the ground."

Alcor's head was sullenly withdrawn, his feathers were puffy like he'd been through a spin cycle, and his left wing jut out at an odd angle, not held at rest against his body. He was hurt. Mother Mormo, _he was hurt_ \--

"You are the one with the--" Nelson said, halting when Ursula slid her fingers under Alcor and lifted him out of Adrian's grasp. "--okay, I guessed right. If I didn't and you're just gonna eat him or something, whatever, just don't tell whoever--"

"Thank you, Nelson. Uh--can you please get the door?" Ursula said, hopping back into her new-teacher room. "My hands are full."

"Use yer damn feet, genius!" Nelson said before closing her door. "Gatdamn new guys thinkin' they can boss me around. I'm gonna get a drink."

Ursula's new-teacher digs were truly a luxurious affair: a bedroom with desk, complimentary filing cabinet, and a fan for an additional small monthly fee. New teachers had to settle with a ten-by-ten-foot-room 'til they proved they weren't gonna go and get themselves disintegrated or rotated into another superstring or arrested.

She took a seat at her desk, setting Alcor on his perch. He took to it one leg at a time, lowering himself with a soft, displeased noise. He looked at her with dark, knowing eyes.

He had been hurt once before on tour, some little punk with a slingshot thinking it'd be funny to try and tag Alcor with a slingshot. That was when she had the Shiny Rod; back then, any and all healing took a moment's concentration and one syllable. Without the Rod doing most of the heavy lifting, healing magic was a finicky, particular affair.

"I need you to hold still, Alcor," she said, stroking his head. "You can be still for me, can't you, boy?"

Alcor croaked, and strained to hold out his wing. It was broken. From the look of it, he had crashed into a branch or a pole, something that didn't yield when he flew into it. So, step one, set the bone. Oh, this was going to be awful.

"Please," she said, "don't hate me for this."

Alcor closed his eyes.

She took the broken bones between her fingers, and with the gentlest pressure her superhumanly strong hands could exert, she slipped the cracked bone back in alignment. Alcor shrieked his displeasure, tilting his body away from the pain, but he kept his wing steady. Ursula's eyes stung with tears. "I have to do this. Please don't hate me..." She deployed her wand in her free hand and held the tines near the wound, keeping his bones pinched in place. "Count with me, Alcor. Three. Two... Five, four... three... two... one. _Integridad._ "

Green light shimmered under his skin; Alcor shivered in pain. Ursula kept the spell active 'til the sound of knitting bone trailed off; she ended the spell and let his wing go. Alcor pressed the wing against his side protectively. She stroked his head and back, trying to pat down his puffed-out feathers. "Good boy," she said. "Good Alcor. You were brave."

Alcor chirped weakly and nuzzled his head against her hand.

"I'm sorry you got hurt," Ursula said. She kissed his beak and took a step aside to open her snack drawer. She picked an apple, set it on her desk, and cast a culinary spell to slice it into eight pieces around an apple core, all so perfect they looked like they were straight out of a cartoon. She took one of the slices and held it out to Alcor on her open palm. The raven pecked it once, twice, then took it in his beak and chomped it down in many little bites.

She helped herself to one of the others, watching Alcor eat. The raven was nearly 150 years old; he had been part of her family since the Golden Age. There was a painting of one of the great matriarchs of the du Nord family with a young, sleek Alcor alit on her outstretched forearm; she had vivid memories of being six, pointing to Alcor on her own shoulder and then to Alcor in the painting, again and again, acting utterly shocked every time. The bird had humored her.

Familiars were spectacularly long-lived and intelligent, but Alcor was near the end of even a familiar's time. When she attended Luna Nova as a student, he was haggard, frail, and slept most of the day; when she obtained the Shiny Rod, the infusion of eldritch magic carried through her connection to Alcor, rejuvenating him until he was damn near back to his prime.

When she failed the Rod, Alcor took sick; and now, years later, he was nearly as fragile as he was in those early days of attending Luna Nova.

Ursula had failed a lot of people when she shot the moon. Taking away Alcor's second youth felt like one of her most bitter betrayals.

She blinked and hot tears slipped down her cheeks, dripping into he rlap.

Ah--and now she was crying. She held her breath, trying to hold in the tears as she reached for another apple slice.

Alcor flew, just a little, and landed on her shoulder. He took a few steps to the side and rested his warm, smooth body against her face. He shrugged, wiping tears from her cheek. And he stood there, eyes closed, imitating a purr as best he could. It was shrill and throaty, but, well... he was trying.

Ursula let out her breath in one loud sob, then took a hold of herself. Steady breaths, Cherry. If there's anyone on this earth who loves you, it's your Alcor.

The crying spell ended mercifully swiftly. She held up the rest of the apple slices for Alcor. One by one, he ate three more, then hopped from her shoulder and half-flew back to his perch.

Three more were left.

"Thank you," she said, wiping her other cheek and helping herself. The crystal snap of the apple's ruby skin and the juicy crunch of its ripe flesh was satisfying in a way she could barely register with her first taste; she finished her half and felt a tension that had wound its way around her shoulders fall away at last. She reclined in her seat and watched Alcor as he settled in for a nap.

She also realized her glasses were foggy and speckled with tears, and so she cleaned them with her glasses cloth.

There was a knock at the door. "One moment, please," she said, and answered it.

"Hey," Nelson said, holding out a couple of bottles of Löwenbräu. "Sorry for bein' testy. Bird problems ain't no joke."

Ursula smiled. "Thank you," she said, and took one of the beers, flicking the cap off with her thumb; it slapped against the ceiling and fell to the ground a short distance away. "I mean... really. Thank you for finding him. He means the world to me."

"Oh thank cripes I found the right one," Nelson said. "...wait, uh... I mean... you forgot the other beer."

Ursula stopped her long sip. "I'm fine with one, thank you."

"Oh, bitchin'." Nelson bit off the cap on the offered beer and a beer she had in her left hand, spat them onto the floor behind her, and took a long swig from both at the same time. "Say hi to your bird for me. What was its name again?"

"Alcor," Ursula said. "Like the star."

"Neat. ... Wait, like... what's-her-name... Chariot's bird? The white raven with the..." She gestured to her chest.

"He's the same species," Ursula said. "And, uh, don't tell anybody, but I was big into Shiny Chariot back in the day."

"Chick had yabbos out to here, what's not to like?" Nelson said, gesturing half a meter in front of her chest. "Anyway, seeya later."

Ursula closed the door, sat on her bed, and took a meditative drink. Alcor was drifting off to sleep already, head turned around and nested on his back between his tucked wings.

She smiled. "A nap sounds just perfect," she said. "Right after this." 


End file.
